Vintage Supermarket Stuff

[Retro Spectator]

I recently got a job at a local supermarket. I've been enjoying working there. I'm an extrovert, and I get to talk to people all day!

One thing that I really like about this supermarket is that they have the original decor. The supermarket was built in the late 60s and they still have the same wallpaper, checkout aisles, freezers, etc. I really like the wood paneling on the freezers and deli cases (I love wood paneling.)

I was wondering if anyone else has seen similar supermarkets with the original decor/stuff inside?

 

[Stanley Doble]

I used to work in a fruitcake foundry where all the machinery appeared to be made in the 1940s. It was all streamlined, made of cast iron, and filled with gears and machinery driven by chains. It was great. Everything clean, well maintained, freshly painted white. They only ran the fruitcake line for a couple of months in the fall for the Christmas trade. The rest of the year they baked tarts and snack cakes.

 

[tonyb]

I recently got a job at a local supermarket. I've been enjoying working there. I'm an extrovert, and I get to talk to people all day!

One thing that I really like about this supermarket is that they have the original decor. The supermarket was built in the late 60s and they still have the same wallpaper, checkout aisles, freezers, etc. I really like the wood paneling on the freezers and deli cases (I love wood paneling.)

I was wondering if anyone else has seen similar supermarkets with the original decor/stuff inside?

How large is this store?

I ask because in recent years I've seen many a '60s-vintage supermarket building abandoned, converted to other uses, or demolished, and many a new supermarket be built, but on a larger scale -- twice as large or more.

Safeway went on something of a building binge in the Puget Sound region. The standard procedure was to keep the existing (largely '60s era) buildings open and operating while all-new (and substantially larger) structures went up in the parking lots, and close the old buildings the instant the new ones open. And then the old buildings were demolished and parking took their places.

The thinking is that shoppers are creatures of habit, and Safeway wished for their customers to remain in the habit of shopping at Safeway.

 

[BobHufford]

RS -- I would love to see some pics of your new place of employment.

We have one of those iconic Safeway buildings that eventually closed and sat vacant. I often feared that the building would be demolished, but it has been reborn as completely remodeled grocery under a different chain. No fixtures of the past exist, but at least the building is still there (and it is serving its original purpose for the neighborhood once again).

 

[Retro Spectator]

The supermarket I work at is on the small side. It doesn't have much land to my knowledge, and it has a very small parking lot (only two rows.) It's in a small rural town surrounded by other small rural towns. I highly doubt that they will ever be bought out by a supermarket chain because I don't think it would be profitable for a large scale supermarket to be in the area. Also, in the area there are lots of other independent grocery stores.

They are located miles away from any other supermarket. I believe they serve mostly the local populace and people passing through. As sell gas there, I would bet they make lots of money from selling gas and cigarettes. In a sense, they are like a large continence store mixed with a smaller supermarket.

I'll see if I can get an outside picture of it today. You're not supposed use your phone on the job, but I might be able to take interior pictures when my shift is done.

 

[tonyb]

RS -- I would love to see some pics of your new place of employment.

We have one of those iconic Safeway buildings that eventually closed and sat vacant. I often feared that the building would be demolished, but it has been reborn as completely remodeled grocery under a different chain. No fixtures of the past exist, but at least the building is still there (and it is serving its original purpose for the neighborhood once again).

Good to see that building put to good use. Looks like the new operators cleaned up the lot as well. Vacant commercial buildings with weeds growing out of the cracks in the parking lot drag down a district.

Supermarkets use a whole lotta energy. I imagine that the newer heating and cooling systems, as well as the cold cases and freezers, are more energy efficient than their predecessors.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We had an IGA store that was frozen in time around 1969 until it was shut down in the early 2000s and turned into an auto parts store. It was the classic small-town independent supermarket of that era -- blocky brick building with wood-paneled interior and "abstract" wall hangings to give it color interest. It was more a neighborhood store than a "plaza" supermarket, and there was much resentment when it was bought out and shut down by Hannaford Bros, the supermarket kings of the Northeast.

Before the supermarkets came, my town was served by nearly a dozen small neighborhood grocers, all of which were cut from a similar mold: either a storefront in a multi-story building or the carved-up front of a medium-sized house. There was always a bare wooden floor oiled with linseed oil, a meat and fish counter in the back, coolers along the side walls, two or three aisles of shelved merchandise in the middle, and a clerk's counter at the front. There were always magazine and newspaper racks out on the sidewalk, and a sign advertising cold beer in a front window. The fancier stores had air conditioning, advertised by a peeling sticker on the door of a penguin smoking a cigarette and saying "Come on in, it's KOOL inside!"

All of these neighborhood grocers are gone now, but the last of them endured into the 1990s.

 

[Retro Spectator]

I didn't get any interior pictures yet (only a picture of the calendar, which I took for my personal use.) Here's the exterior. Unfortunately I didn't get the gas pumps. They are on the right of the building. Keep in mind that I am standing in almost the edge of the parking area. It's not exactly a lot because it's only a row of cars.

 

[Trenchfriend]

@retrospectator

Thanks for showing!

That looks not much different to a small supermarket in Germany. Of course, with SUV in front.

 

[Retro Spectator]

Yesterday I asked them if I could take pictures and they let me. Here are some photos of the store.

Gum display and checkout.

Partipure ice merchandiser.

Hussman deli cases

Warren Sherer wood grain dairy case and freezers.

Beverage Air beverage merchandiser. Model MT45.

A & B displays Battle Creek, Michigan shelf manufactured for Archway Bakeries.

Some assorted shelves.

 

[Bushman]

*sighs* The local supermarket near me used to look just like that, before they fell out of business and were bought by a daycare/preschool.